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My First "Person" Vardoger

Naughty_Felid

kneesy earsy nosey
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Mar 11, 2008
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Maybe because I've been thinking about it, or maybe it's because I like saying the word "Vardoger', "Vardoger". Had my first non-cat, non-ghost, person I know one.

At home expecting the wife, heard her walk up the path and try the door handle, (I leave it unlocked when I know she's on the way home), and then nothing!

Look out the window - nobody there. 5 minutes later I hear the car come up the drive and shortly afterwards my wife arrives corporally this time up the garden path.

Didn't mention it to her.
 
I have these a lot.


Just to explore it further, I was really wanting my wife to come home, as we had planned to go for a run and I still had to cook tea and have a chat to a friend and time was getting on.

So do you find willing the person to come home, increases the likelihood of the experience?
 
Just to explore it further, I was really wanting my wife to come home, as we had planned to go for a run and I still had to cook tea and have a chat to a friend and time was getting on.

So do you find willing the person to come home, increases the likelihood of the experience?

No, it doesn't seem to make a difference.

I have mentioned this on another thread (Ulalume's, I think) so apologies for repeating myself. :)

The house I live in is about twenty years old and although I don't get any 'Stone Tape' phenomena I do get Vardoger events. The regular one involves my youngest son; he always calls out a particular phrase when he comes in and I often hear the key in the lock followed by the front door opening and closing, the greeting is called out but he is not in the house.
He usually arrives about twenty minutes later.

This has happened both when I am expecting him home and when I am not. Oddly enough, it happened yesterday, minus the greeting, and a quarter of an hour later my eldest son arrived out of the blue (he has a set of keys) and let himself in.
 
Had another. wife expected home at 18:00. At 17:50 hear the middle door not the front door, (sort of like an airlock between the front door and kitchen which makes up the conservatory and laundry), door handle turn.

Bit puzzled, but went to open the middle door from my side, thinking that the wife expected the middle door to be on the latch and wouldn't need her key but she found it locked. Open the door nothing.

10 mins later right on time she arrives. It was definately that door handle it's unmistakable. It's stiff and makes a springy/grinding sound when you turn it, (fnarr).
 
Too bloody quick for you.

I like to point out old threads, not to invite any merging but so newer posters can enjoy the eyebrow-raising tales of yore.
 
Never knew this was the name or that this was a phenomenon.

At university one day I was in the shower, which was at the top of the main staircase, when I heard the door open, footsteps coming up the stairs, across the landing and up the next flight of stairs to the third floor and my flatmate's room. I then heard music playing, Madonna which he was heavily into, then about two minutes later the music stopped, and I heard the noise down the stairs and then out the front door. I arrived at the college down the road about 20 minutes later, saw my flatmate and asked what he had rushed into the house for and he looked at me puzzled and said he had been in the computer room all afternoon and had not left. A classmate also in the computer room verified his story. :eek:


I still think he was lying and trying to freak me out but there were enough other things that happened in our house at uni to leave me a little less sceptical than normal.
 
there were enough other things that happened in our house at uni to leave me a little less sceptical than normal.

We'll need to hear more, please. :cool:
 
Footsteps on the landing... remind us of the previous tenant. Breathing on the landing as well, although I personally never heard that my landlady did.

My flatmate claims he woke up early one morning and through bleary eyes saw a ghost child standing across the room. He also claims he came home from college one day and found all his books stacked in the middle of the room.

And then there was the ouija board night. My landlady's bedroom was next door to my bedroom and I came in late one night and saw her door was open and the light still on so I poked my head in to see her bolt upright in bed with wide eyes. It turned out her and my flatmate had done a makeshift ouija board and the responses they got had freaked both of them out. She was a very no nonsense school teacher and has gone on to become a headmaster so not someone who would be easily spooked. I eventually went to my room but lasted about 10 minutes before upping sticks and going to stay the night at my girlfriends place. The house had a lovely atmosphere and I was never scared there but that night felt completely different. I'm sure it was 100% psychological but there was just a horrible, dark sensation in the house for about a week after.

I did some research at the local library on the house and its previous residents but didn't come up with anything sinister. Unlike the murder house a few streets away and the mysterious whistling that soundtracked me and my flatmates late night visit there.... But that is another story ;)
 
Footsteps on the landing... remind us of the previous tenant. Breathing on the landing as well, although I personally never heard that my landlady did.

My flatmate claims he woke up early one morning and through bleary eyes saw a ghost child standing across the room. He also claims he came home from college one day and found all his books stacked in the middle of the room.

And then there was the ouija board night. My landlady's bedroom was next door to my bedroom and I came in late one night and saw her door was open and the light still on so I poked my head in to see her bolt upright in bed with wide eyes. It turned out her and my flatmate had done a makeshift ouija board and the responses they got had freaked both of them out. She was a very no nonsense school teacher and has gone on to become a headmaster so not someone who would be easily spooked. I eventually went to my room but lasted about 10 minutes before upping sticks and going to stay the night at my girlfriends place. The house had a lovely atmosphere and I was never scared there but that night felt completely different. I'm sure it was 100% psychological but there was just a horrible, dark sensation in the house for about a week after.

I did some research at the local library on the house and its previous residents but didn't come up with anything sinister. Unlike the murder house a few streets away and the mysterious whistling that soundtracked me and my flatmates late night visit there.... But that is another story ;)


Good account, but you've missed something. The landlady - was she a Hattie Jacques, Joan Sims or a Babs Windsor?
 
Probably a Joan Jacques. Lovely lady.

Of the three I'd have preferred a Carry On era Sims. :D
 
good call, very underrated was Joan.
Quite so, I'm with you chaps on that. "Just the one Mrs. Wembley?"

I had a pal at college (we'll call him 'Crazy Dave') and his fondness for coffee was a major factor in our friendship. Over the course of a few yew I got into the habit of making a pot, even at odd times of the day, because usually, CD would arrive a bit later. On the edge of being a vardoger, but still.
 
Definite Vardoger event two weeks ago. I had a rare weekday off and was upstairs changing the sheets when I heard the very distinctive sound of my dog run throught the house into the kitchen ( sort of skittery, scratchy sliding noise) followed by a few wuffs and growls- his reaction to strangers but not a threat situation. I assumed my son had come home for a visit and probaly laundry purposes) my husband being at work, daughter at school. I went down to see him and assess the likely workload only to find no son and dog feigning sleep on the sofa. Very odd, I definitely heard the noises convincing enough to abondon fitting a kingsize duvet and was not expecting any visitors.

Back to the sheets, 15 minutes later dog skitters into kitchen and greets son, who has popped around with a modest amount of laundry hoping to use computer, raid fridge etc in peace. He was dissapointed as I put him to work moving some furniture ( But I did do his laundry).

It is an old house and odd noises, lights and draughts are part of the package but this is the first time I have really been convinced that someone has come in before they did. I was not expecting Pat to drop in as he works and buses are infrequent, so it was a lovely (and useful) surprise.

nic
 
Wasn't there research into how dogs know when their owners are heading home before they actually arrive? I can't recall the conclusion, or if there was one, but this is the first time I've heard of an owner knowing when a dog knows someone is heading home. Could it be the same mechanism? Does the dog "hear" the familiar sounds and that prepares it?
 
Wasn't there research into how dogs know when their owners are heading home before they actually arrive? I can't recall the conclusion, or if there was one, but this is the first time I've heard of an owner knowing when a dog knows someone is heading home. Could it be the same mechanism? Does the dog "hear" the familiar sounds and that prepares it?

I reckon it is the same (or a similar) mechanism. It got touched on towards the end of this thread: http://forum.forteantimes.com/index.php?threads/canine-forteana.13612/
 
Vardoger happens very often in Norway. That's where the name comes from. Sound vardoger happens very often. Vision vardoger not so often. Sound vardoger when you think you hear from the sound that a family member has entered the house is quite common. Typically 10-30 minutes later you hear the exact same noise again and this time the family member arrives for real.

Vision vardoger where you see a friend or familiar person walk past you on the street without saying anything, which you think is weird, happens to a few. Only a few minutes later on the same street you will see the same person and this time you both say hello to each other.
 
Wasn't there research into how dogs know when their owners are heading home before they actually arrive? I can't recall the conclusion, or if there was one, but this is the first time I've heard of an owner knowing when a dog knows someone is heading home. Could it be the same mechanism? Does the dog "hear" the familiar sounds and that prepares it?

Hi GNC, I should have responded sooner. Yes there was a study about pets and owners, I have been trying to find it to link to this. My dogs normal response to real (or imagined) threats outside the back door is to bounce up and down barking in a high pitched tone*, it's rare for him to greet in a low key fashion unless he is really sure who it is.

My mother had a siamese cat who always knew when she was coming home, she worked for district nurse so could be any time. Cat would always dissapear upstairs to sit in window and 10 minutes later she would come home

* Jack russell Chiuaha cross- possibly the campest dog in the village.
 
My mother had a siamese cat who always knew when she was coming home, she worked for district nurse so could be any time. Cat would always dissapear upstairs to sit in window and 10 minutes later she would come home

This is interesting, because the sceptic would say the pet knows what time the owner will be home because they arrive at the same point every day, but if the pet still manages the feat at random, there may be more to it.
 
This is interesting, because the sceptic would say the pet knows what time the owner will be home because they arrive at the same point every day...
Can cats tell the time then? It would be claiming a lot to say that they can, because the amount of daylight or darkness varies so much throughout the year in middle latitude countries like Britain. 7 pm could be bright daylight in summer, or black night in winter. Plus the weather can affect light levels.

I wonder if any research on this has been carried out. Meanwhile, cat owners might like to keep a closer eye on their pets for any clues!
 
Seeing as how days lengthen and shorten gradually, it's not too much of a stretch to assume the cats would get to know the right time to wait for their owner to arrive, they would judge it more by recent instances. But if they can judge at random, that's probably not what's happening here. Who knows what is, though?
 
Can cats tell the time then? It would be claiming a lot to say that they can, because the amount of daylight or darkness varies so much throughout the year in middle latitude countries like Britain. 7 pm could be bright daylight in summer, or black night in winter. Plus the weather can affect light levels.

I wonder if any research on this has been carried out. Meanwhile, cat owners might like to keep a closer eye on their pets for any clues!

Big Stormy will often wait for his mum to come home and sits up the top of the drive. I'd never given it a moments thought how he worked out the time until you mentioned it Rynner.
 
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